Journal de virologie et de recherche antivirale

Molecular Detection of Human Papilloma Virus Infection of Uterine Cervix among Women of Reproductive Age

Misbah Noor, Eijaz Ghani, Saifullah Khan Niazi and Muhammad Tahir Khadim

Objective: The objective of this study was to determine frequency of human papilloma virus infection of uterine cervix among women of reproductive age by polymerase chain reaction.

Study Design and Duration: It was a cross sectional study of six months duration.

Methodology: 162 samples of exfoliated cervical cells were collected with cervical sampler; during gynecological examination. The tip containing cellular material was placed into PreservCyt bottle with collection medium, stored at 4°C and then transported to Virology department of AFIP for real time PCR.

Results: The frequency of human papilloma virus infection of uterine cervix among women of reproductive age by polymerase chain reaction was 2.47% (n=4). Mean age of participants was 33.2 ± 6.4 years. Mean age at 1st pregnancy was 23 ± 3.3 years while mean number of children was 3 ± 1.4. 87.7% of participants husband had one wife and 4.9% participants husband had more than one wives. 89.5% never used OCP while 5.6% were former and 4.9% were current users. 89% of participants never smoked, 9% were former smoker and 2% were current smokers. Among positive cases, three patients had HR-HPV 16 and one had a rare HR-HPV 51/59 infection.

Conclusion: The frequency of human papilloma virus infection of uterine cervix was not very high among women of reproductive in our setup. However, it was a single center study which may not reflect the frequency of the whole city as data from other hospitals was not included in the study. All four positive cases belong to >36 years age group. The positive women in our study had birth of their first child between 15-20 years of age (P=0.001 CI=95%) and also they had high parity (P=0.013 CI=95%). All the four positive women were apparently healthy, so screening must be recommended for sexually active women in our country. A nationwide study must be carried out for formulation of screening and vaccination strategies for future.